мониторинг событий файловой системы (monitoring filesystem events)
Имя (Name)
inotify - monitoring filesystem events
Описание (Description)
The inotify API provides a mechanism for monitoring filesystem
events. Inotify can be used to monitor individual files, or to
monitor directories. When a directory is monitored, inotify will
return events for the directory itself, and for files inside the
directory.
The following system calls are used with this API:
* inotify_init(2) creates an inotify instance and returns a file
descriptor referring to the inotify instance. The more recent
inotify_init1(2) is like inotify_init(2), but has a flags
argument that provides access to some extra functionality.
* inotify_add_watch(2) manipulates the "watch list" associated
with an inotify instance. Each item ("watch") in the watch
list specifies the pathname of a file or directory, along with
some set of events that the kernel should monitor for the file
referred to by that pathname. inotify_add_watch(2) either
creates a new watch item, or modifies an existing watch. Each
watch has a unique "watch descriptor", an integer returned by
inotify_add_watch(2) when the watch is created.
* When events occur for monitored files and directories, those
events are made available to the application as structured
data that can be read from the inotify file descriptor using
read(2) (see below).
* inotify_rm_watch(2) removes an item from an inotify watch
list.
* When all file descriptors referring to an inotify instance
have been closed (using close(2)), the underlying object and
its resources are freed for reuse by the kernel; all
associated watches are automatically freed.
With careful programming, an application can use inotify to
efficiently monitor and cache the state of a set of filesystem
objects. However, robust applications should allow for the fact
that bugs in the monitoring logic or races of the kind described
below may leave the cache inconsistent with the filesystem state.
It is probably wise to do some consistency checking, and rebuild
the cache when inconsistencies are detected.
Reading events from an inotify file descriptor
To determine what events have occurred, an application read(2)s
from the inotify file descriptor. If no events have so far
occurred, then, assuming a blocking file descriptor, read(2) will
block until at least one event occurs (unless interrupted by a
signal, in which case the call fails with the error EINTR; see
signal(7)).
Each successful read(2) returns a buffer containing one or more
of the following structures:
struct inotify_event {
int wd; /* Watch descriptor */
uint32_t mask; /* Mask describing event */
uint32_t cookie; /* Unique cookie associating related
events (for rename(2)) */
uint32_t len; /* Size of name field */
char name[]; /* Optional null-terminated name */
};
wd identifies the watch for which this event occurs. It is one
of the watch descriptors returned by a previous call to
inotify_add_watch(2).
mask contains bits that describe the event that occurred (see
below).
cookie is a unique integer that connects related events.
Currently, this is used only for rename events, and allows the
resulting pair of IN_MOVED_FROM and IN_MOVED_TO events to be
connected by the application. For all other event types, cookie
is set to 0.
The name field is present only when an event is returned for a
file inside a watched directory; it identifies the filename
within the watched directory. This filename is null-terminated,
and may include further null bytes ('\0') to align subsequent
reads to a suitable address boundary.
The len field counts all of the bytes in name, including the null
bytes; the length of each inotify_event structure is thus
sizeof(struct inotify_event)+len.
The behavior when the buffer given to read(2) is too small to
return information about the next event depends on the kernel
version: in kernels before 2.6.21, read(2) returns 0; since
kernel 2.6.21, read(2) fails with the error EINVAL. Specifying a
buffer of size
sizeof(struct inotify_event) + NAME_MAX + 1
will be sufficient to read at least one event.
inotify events
The inotify_add_watch(2) mask argument and the mask field of the
inotify_event structure returned when read(2)ing an inotify file
descriptor are both bit masks identifying inotify events. The
following bits can be specified in mask when calling
inotify_add_watch(2) and may be returned in the mask field
returned by read(2):
IN_ACCESS (+)
File was accessed (e.g., read(2), execve(2)).
IN_ATTRIB (*)
Metadata changed—for example, permissions (e.g.,
chmod(2)), timestamps (e.g., utimensat(2)), extended
attributes (setxattr(2)), link count (since Linux
2.6.25; e.g., for the target of link(2) and for
unlink(2)), and user/group ID (e.g., chown(2)).
IN_CLOSE_WRITE (+)
File opened for writing was closed.
IN_CLOSE_NOWRITE (*)
File or directory not opened for writing was closed.
IN_CREATE (+)
File/directory created in watched directory (e.g.,
open(2) O_CREAT, mkdir(2), link(2), symlink(2),
bind(2) on a UNIX domain socket).
IN_DELETE (+)
File/directory deleted from watched directory.
IN_DELETE_SELF
Watched file/directory was itself deleted. (This
event also occurs if an object is moved to another
filesystem, since mv(1) in effect copies the file to
the other filesystem and then deletes it from the
original filesystem.) In addition, an IN_IGNORED
event will subsequently be generated for the watch
descriptor.
IN_MODIFY (+)
File was modified (e.g., write(2), truncate(2)).
IN_MOVE_SELF
Watched file/directory was itself moved.
IN_MOVED_FROM (+)
Generated for the directory containing the old
filename when a file is renamed.
IN_MOVED_TO (+)
Generated for the directory containing the new
filename when a file is renamed.
IN_OPEN (*)
File or directory was opened.
Inotify monitoring is inode-based: when monitoring a file (but
not when monitoring the directory containing a file), an event
can be generated for activity on any link to the file (in the
same or a different directory).
When monitoring a directory:
* the events marked above with an asterisk (*) can occur both
for the directory itself and for objects inside the directory;
and
* the events marked with a plus sign (+) occur only for objects
inside the directory (not for the directory itself).
Note: when monitoring a directory, events are not generated for
the files inside the directory when the events are performed via
a pathname (i.e., a link) that lies outside the monitored
directory.
When events are generated for objects inside a watched directory,
the name field in the returned inotify_event structure identifies
the name of the file within the directory.
The IN_ALL_EVENTS macro is defined as a bit mask of all of the
above events. This macro can be used as the mask argument when
calling inotify_add_watch(2).
Two additional convenience macros are defined:
IN_MOVE
Equates to IN_MOVED_FROM | IN_MOVED_TO.
IN_CLOSE
Equates to IN_CLOSE_WRITE | IN_CLOSE_NOWRITE.
The following further bits can be specified in mask when calling
inotify_add_watch(2):
IN_DONT_FOLLOW (since Linux 2.6.15)
Don't dereference pathname if it is a symbolic link.
IN_EXCL_UNLINK (since Linux 2.6.36)
By default, when watching events on the children of a
directory, events are generated for children even
after they have been unlinked from the directory.
This can result in large numbers of uninteresting
events for some applications (e.g., if watching /tmp,
in which many applications create temporary files
whose names are immediately unlinked). Specifying
IN_EXCL_UNLINK changes the default behavior, so that
events are not generated for children after they have
been unlinked from the watched directory.
IN_MASK_ADD
If a watch instance already exists for the filesystem
object corresponding to pathname, add (OR) the events
in mask to the watch mask (instead of replacing the
mask); the error EINVAL results if IN_MASK_CREATE is
also specified.
IN_ONESHOT
Monitor the filesystem object corresponding to
pathname for one event, then remove from watch list.
IN_ONLYDIR (since Linux 2.6.15)
Watch pathname only if it is a directory; the error
ENOTDIR results if pathname is not a directory. Using
this flag provides an application with a race-free way
of ensuring that the monitored object is a directory.
IN_MASK_CREATE (since Linux 4.18)
Watch pathname only if it does not already have a
watch associated with it; the error EEXIST results if
pathname is already being watched.
Using this flag provides an application with a way of
ensuring that new watches do not modify existing ones.
This is useful because multiple paths may refer to the
same inode, and multiple calls to inotify_add_watch(2)
without this flag may clobber existing watch masks.
The following bits may be set in the mask field returned by
read(2):
IN_IGNORED
Watch was removed explicitly (inotify_rm_watch(2)) or
automatically (file was deleted, or filesystem was
unmounted). See also BUGS.
IN_ISDIR
Subject of this event is a directory.
IN_Q_OVERFLOW
Event queue overflowed (wd is -1 for this event).
IN_UNMOUNT
Filesystem containing watched object was unmounted.
In addition, an IN_IGNORED event will subsequently be
generated for the watch descriptor.
Examples
Suppose an application is watching the directory dir and the file
dir/myfile for all events. The examples below show some events
that will be generated for these two objects.
fd = open("dir/myfile", O_RDWR);
Generates IN_OPEN events for both dir and dir/myfile.
read(fd, buf, count);
Generates IN_ACCESS events for both dir and
dir/myfile.
write(fd, buf, count);
Generates IN_MODIFY events for both dir and
dir/myfile.
fchmod(fd, mode);
Generates IN_ATTRIB events for both dir and
dir/myfile.
close(fd);
Generates IN_CLOSE_WRITE events for both dir and
dir/myfile.
Suppose an application is watching the directories dir1 and dir2,
and the file dir1/myfile. The following examples show some
events that may be generated.
link("dir1/myfile", "dir2/new");
Generates an IN_ATTRIB event for myfile and an
IN_CREATE event for dir2.
rename("dir1/myfile", "dir2/myfile");
Generates an IN_MOVED_FROM event for dir1, an
IN_MOVED_TO event for dir2, and an IN_MOVE_SELF event
for myfile. The IN_MOVED_FROM and IN_MOVED_TO events
will have the same cookie value.
Suppose that dir1/xx and dir2/yy are (the only) links to the same
file, and an application is watching dir1, dir2, dir1/xx, and
dir2/yy. Executing the following calls in the order given below
will generate the following events:
unlink("dir2/yy");
Generates an IN_ATTRIB event for xx (because its link
count changes) and an IN_DELETE event for dir2.
unlink("dir1/xx");
Generates IN_ATTRIB, IN_DELETE_SELF, and IN_IGNORED
events for xx, and an IN_DELETE event for dir1.
Suppose an application is watching the directory dir and (the
empty) directory dir/subdir. The following examples show some
events that may be generated.
mkdir("dir/new", mode);
Generates an IN_CREATE | IN_ISDIR event for dir.
rmdir("dir/subdir");
Generates IN_DELETE_SELF and IN_IGNORED events for
subdir, and an IN_DELETE | IN_ISDIR event for dir.
/proc interfaces
The following interfaces can be used to limit the amount of
kernel memory consumed by inotify:
/proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_queued_events
The value in this file is used when an application calls
inotify_init(2) to set an upper limit on the number of
events that can be queued to the corresponding inotify
instance. Events in excess of this limit are dropped, but
an IN_Q_OVERFLOW event is always generated.
/proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_instances
This specifies an upper limit on the number of inotify
instances that can be created per real user ID.
/proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_watches
This specifies an upper limit on the number of watches
that can be created per real user ID.
